Anthony Marx

Anthony W. Marx (born 1959) is the current president and CEO of the New York Public Library in July 2011, succeeding Paul LeClerc.[1] Marx is the former president of Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts.

He is an alumnus of the Bronx High School of Science after which he attended Wesleyan University and Yale University; in 1981 he received a B.S. magna cum laude from Yale. He received an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1986, followed by M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton in 1987 and 1990. In 2012, one year after he left the college, Marx received an honorary degree from Amherst College.

After graduating from Yale, Marx spent a year in South Africa participating in the anti-Apartheid movement. Even after returning to the U.S. for graduate school at Princeton, he returned frequently to participate in the founding of Khanya College, a secondary school which prepared black students for university.[2][3]

According to BusinessWeek, one reason the Amherst Board of Trustees chose Marx as president was his support for socioeconomic diversity on college campuses. One of Marx's goals was to make Amherst more accessible to qualified students from lower income families. Marx supports the 'QuestBridge College Match' program at Amherst. According to their webpage QuestBridge is, "...an alternative college admission and financial aid process specifically tailored to bright, motivated low-income students. [An] alternative process aids low-income students in presenting a full picture of their intellectual promise and personal qualities in light of their limited resources".[3][4]

Marx is author of three books on nation-building, and has concentrated on South Africa.

He is married to Karen Barkey, a professor of Sociology at Columbia University. They have two children, Josh and Anna.

Notes

  1. ↑ Taylor, Kate. "Amherst President is Expected to Be Named Chief of the New York Public Library," New York Times. October 6, 2010; NYPL Press release
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Campus Revolutionary
  4. ↑ QuestBridge

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Tom Gerety		 President of Amherst College
2003–2011 		Succeeded by
Carolyn Martin